FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Two eras, two leaders, the same logic of power: control over the vote, over the system and over fear. In 1996, Sali Berisha falsified history to stay in power. In 2025, Edi Rama took power with votes against Berisha, but to build a system that resembles the one he once despised...
Sali Berisha took power with 900 thousand votes in 1996. Edi Rama took a fourth mandate with 900 thousand votes against Berisha. History repeats itself, but the game remains the same…
The elections of May 11, 2025 brought a major victory for the Socialist Party and a historic figure for Edi Rama: nearly 900 thousand votes. But more than a triumph for the government, this was a cold vote of revenge against a figure: Sali Berisha.
Because 29 years ago, on May 26, 1996, Sali Berisha had received exactly the same amount; 914 thousand votes in the most contested elections in the history of Albania after communism.
It was an election that began with violence and ended in disgrace. The ballot boxes were stuffed with reserve ballots from the SHIK, opposition commissioners were imprisoned or forcibly removed, international observers were threatened with weapons, and the final result was a 90% victory for Sali Berisha's DP.
That dark day, May 26, 1996, was the day when Berisha struck democracy with a fatal blow, never to let it recover.
And today, history seems to have turned to him like a political mirror, with the same figure, but with two different sides of the coin:
– then he was the forger;
– today he is the object of massive rejection.
The May 11 elections were different in form, but very similar in logic.
Instead of Gazidede's SHIK, we have new-style patronageists.
Instead of gangs entering the commissions, we have oligarchs and traffickers silently controlling the votes.
Instead of men with Kalashnikovs, we have quiet women in the commissions, but with a party structure that commands the result in every unit.
In 1996, international reports described May 26 as the “day of electoral terror.” Berisha did everything to take total control of power. The figure of 900,000 was his obsession.
Today, that figure is his punishment.
Because the SP did not simply get votes for Rama. It got 900 thousand votes against Berisha.
A fact that Edi Rama himself understands, but does not say. Because these are not votes he loves, they are votes disgusted by Saliu's return.
But anyone who sees this result as a "moral victory" for the SP is gravely mistaken.
Because there is a tragic commonality between the Berisha of 1996 and the Rama of 2025: both have used power to protect themselves; both have built networks of patronage and clientelism to control the result; both have had a plan to govern without real opposition.
In 1996, Berisha led the country to the brink of political abyss.
In 2025, Rama is keeping everything under control, with votes that seem legitimate, but that come from an electoral machine with many more teeth than Gazidede's.
History is strange. It gives every man the opportunity to look at himself in the mirror.
Berisha once stole the elections to stop the rotation.
Today, the votes Rama received are a revenge against him, but used to continue the same system of domination, under a different name./ Pamphlet
Lini një Përgjigje